The Path of Simplicity: A Life Philosophy for Exploring the Essence of Things
Fewer and fewer people are writing personal blogs in Chinese, yet an interesting phenomenon has emerged: those who maintain long-term blogs often stick to stable blogging platforms, such as Sneeze.com and Ruan Yifeng’s blog. Despite their technical structures remaining unchanged for over a decade, their content is consistently updated. This demonstrates that these platform operators deeply understand the essence of blogging—“content is king.” In contrast, those who frequently switch blogging platforms tend to disappear quickly.
The same applies to many aspects of work and life. Those who focus on appearances are destined to be short-lived, while those who concentrate on substance endure. The key is to grasp the essence of things—surface appearances are not important; understanding what truly matters to the audience is. Li Ziqi’s YouTube channel has not been updated for nearly a year, yet she still earns a monthly income of 700,000 RMB.
When we overly emphasize form, we often neglect the core, making excuses to mask deficiencies. SpaceX’s Starship is made of stainless steel, yet it has become the rocket with the highest payload capacity in the world. The material of the rocket is irrelevant; what matters is achieving the highest payload capacity to enable Mars travel and even interstellar exploration.
There was a time when I was obsessed with quantifying everything—daily calorie intake, step count, sleep duration. I bought a smartwatch and manually recorded various data points. However, these numbers were ultimately unimportant. As I expected, once the initial excitement faded, I rarely paid attention to them. The fundamental issue is that good health does not depend on comprehensive and aesthetically pleasing data but on healthy eating habits and regular exercise. If these two aspects are in place, the data will naturally look good, making excessive attention unnecessary.
By simplifying complexities and stripping away superficial layers, we realize that no matter how intricate things appear, their core principles often boil down to just one or two key ideas. Successful investing requires adherence to value investing principles; becoming a writer demands consistent writing; entrepreneurial success hinges on daily focus on the core business. The path of simplicity applies everywhere—just as in martial arts, where the Dragon Palm technique does not rely on complicated moves but on executing each strike with power and momentum.
The path of simplicity applies to all aspects of life. The so-called “Dao” refers to mastering the essence of things and following fundamental principles. These principles have been distilled and propagated by great thinkers across time, such as Wang Yangming’s philosophy of the mind, Kazuo Inamori’s philosophy of life, Charlie Munger’s common-sense wisdom, Ray Dalio’s principles for work, life, and investing, and Elon Musk’s first-principles thinking. While these principles may seem simple, they offer profound benefits. Even if we cannot achieve their extraordinary successes, we can still attain our own success by repeatedly applying their wisdom in our daily lives and work.
The phrase “the path of simplicity” reminds us that in facing the complexities of the world, we must learn to grasp the essence of things, focusing on substance rather than being overly obsessed with form. Whether in the workplace, academia, or daily life, this principle holds universal applicability. We should strive to simplify problems, extract key points from complexity, and thereby gain a better grasp of the bigger picture to achieve our goals. The path of simplicity is not just a life philosophy but also a practical principle for navigating the world.
